Arcade Issue 1
This issue was cover-dated December 1998 and cost £1. Regulars Contents - 2 pages (4-5) Rants & Raves (Letters) - 1½ pages (6,8,10) Charts - 2 pages (56-57) Release Schedule; Q&A - 2 pages (58-59) Competition - 2 pages (160-161) A-List - Mark Green - 9 pages (163-168, 170-172) Timewarp: December 1984 - Mark Green - 2 pages (174-175) Next Month - 2 pages (176-177) Great Gaming Moments: R-Type - Matt Bielby - 1 page (178) Game On (News) Dreamcast prepares to take on the world: Sega's 128-bit super-console ready. Launches in Japan 27 November. - 1 page (12) Fast Lady: Gran Turismo stole the PlayStation racing crown. Now, with Ridge Racer Type 4, Namco wants it back. - 1 page (13) Tokyo Games Show: Dreamcast's public debut. Sony keeps stiff upper lip. Games, games and more - 1½ pages (14-15) Weird stuff: Eveybody's kung fun fighting! - Dance Dance Revolution - ⅓ page (15) Carmageddon: censors see red - "Secretive" ratings board challenged. Child psychologists consulted. - ⅔ page (16) Activision reaches for the stars: Star Trek and Star Wars under one roof. Software boss "very excited". - ⅔ page (17) Special Report: Sega' Dreamcast offers incredible power, but will that be enough? - 4 pages (18-21) Previews Sonic Adventure - Dreamcast - 2 pages (22-23) Star Wars: Rogue Squadron - PC, N64 - 1½ pages (24-25) Quake II - PlayStation - ½ page (25) Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped - PlayStation - 1½ pages (26-27) Jet Force Gemini - N64 - ½ page (27) Perfect Dark - N64 - 1½ pages (28-29) Silent Hill - PlayStation - ½ page (29) South Park - PC, N64 - 1½ pages (30-31) Rollcage - PC, PlayStation - ½ page (31) Michael Owen's World League Soccer 99 - PC, PlayStation - 1 page (32) Deep Blue - PlayStation - ½ page (33) Homeworld - PC - ½ page (33) Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - PlayStation - 1 page (34) V-Rally 98: Championship Edition - N64 - ½ page (35) G-Police 2: Weapons of Justice - PlayStation - ½ page (35) Trespasser - PC - 1 page (36) Features Games Insider - 2 pages (38-39) *Neil Jackson - Ever waited in desperation for a game to arrive? I have. And I was working on it... *Julian Rignall - You may think Unreal is just another dumb shooter. It's not. *Jason Brookes - Introducing a brand new genre: the "rhythm action" game... *Simon Cox - Americans: they're odd. well, odd-ish. Virtual Fox: Reaper Woman - 2 pages (40-41) :Devastating elemental sorceress Delphi is about to raise temperatures in the upcoming PC game Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Here's why. Profile: Hideo Kojima - Neil West - 2 pages (42-43) :Konami's Metal Gear Solid man on the evils of smoking, karaoke and why Solid Snake doesn't get invited to parties much, but loves the songs of Burt Bacharach. Profile: Thresh - Mark Green - 2 pages (44-45) :The world Quake champion on cool nicknames, gaming as a spectator sport, the future of first person shooters and how to frag, but never get fragged. Lara Swings Again - Jonathan Smith - 10 pages (46-55) :Next to a certain stunted Italian plumber, she's the most recognisable human in videogames. Now there's a third Tomb Raider outing on the horizon, a movie in the offing and the inevitable backlash rumbling in the background. Where can Lara go from here? The Color Purple - 2 pages (60-61) :In the world of handhels Nintendo rules. Nearly ten years after the launch of the all-conquering Game Boy, comes its biggest update ever: colour. Games Night: Hard Drivin'! - Simon Kirrane - 6 pages (62-67) :Every few weeks, we get together for beer, insults and games. Lots of games. Our quest: to name the best car sims for multi-player fun. Missing Link - 5 pages (68-72) :When Nintendo finally releases the long-awaited Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time - a game crucial to the future of the system - millions of N64 owners will take to the streets to celebrate. And then rush inside, pausing only to hang "Do Not Disturb" signs on their doors. So, we ask creator Shigeru Miyamoto, what exactly has been the hold-up? Reviews Games TOCA 2 :TOCA 2 is a game that you are going to have to stick at. It may well not appeal at first and, to be honest, might not be the right thing if you were raised on the arcade thrills of the likes of Rage Racer. Like the real sport TOCA 2 ain't as sexy-looking as its F1 rivals, but stick with it and you'll find it provides more consistently enthralling racing. If you want a Mars Bar, you'd go to the newsagents. If you want the best touring car racing game on the PlayStation, buy TOCA 2, and celebrate your fine purchase with a Mars Bar from the newsagents on the way home. Cool Boarders 3 :Perhaps the biggest fly in the ointment, however, is the existence of Nintendo's 1080°. Sorry, PSX fans, but the N64 simply has the hardware to handle this sort of stuff better. So while Cool Boarders 3 may be the best snowboarding game available on PlayStation, it's not the best snowboarding game'' full stop''. NHL 99 :The camera problems that bugged NHL '98 have been corrected, with '99 showing off its pretty visuals, and atmospheric touches like victory celebrations, gleefully. The only real downside is to do with the built-in problems of ice hockey - a game with so many goals scored that the excitement of each one is swiftly diminished. If you're into the sport, this is fine, but for most people a more comprehensible, strategic football game is probably a much better bet. Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus :Exoddus's strength comes from its character and humour. Abe is as loveable as ever, and watching him chat, laugh and otherwise interact with his mates never gets boring. The combination of this, the pleasure of solving puzzles and the range of tasks on offer, makes Exoddus ''essential for any cerebral platform fan. Lemmings & Oh No! More Lemmings :While the games are initially easy, they very soon become an organisational nightmare. Visually, ''Lemmings ''is, rather obviously, a pensioner. Aurally, it's virtually deaf. But this is to veer from the point. Both titles grab you by the joypad (or preferably mouse) and drag you, and your cerebrum, into a lunatic world of bijou lemming carnage. While not for everyone, Lemmings Compilation happily ignores the tinsel and glitter of modern gaming, and is better for it Rival Schools: United By Fate :''Rival Schools' real strength is that it's not trying to be Tekken. Instead, Capcom has built on its expertise at the cartoony, honed over countless Street Fighter games, but this time has let its imagination run even wilder than usual. The result may lack quite the technical brilliance or hardcore scrapping feel that you get from a good game of Tekken 3, but by pitching the action at an over-the-top, guests-on-Jerry Springer level all its own, comes far closer than most to equalling the PlayStation's grandmaster. Colony Wars: Vengeance :To some extent, Vengeance ''is full of missed opportunities. It's a pity more isn't made of the motherships and enemy bases, lt'd be nice to be able to fly over their surfaces, then dive into trenches and pull back, Star Wars-style. But you can't. Once you're used to it, piloting your ship takes little skill, either - a thrust here, an afterburn there, but sadly with little feeling that you are in a huge metallic box, zooming about in the sky. There's definitely work to be done on this whole game design, but for all its faults, ''Vengeance ''still manages to entertain. Treat it well, show it patience, and it'll return the favour Tenchu: Stealth Assassins :Technically, Tenchu is perhaps a little close to its chop sockey film counterparts, however. The erratic camera makes the fights confusing, there's some unsightly glitching and the animation of your character (you can play as a very different male or female ninja) doesn't seem quite right. But while it lacks ''Metal Gear's finesse, Tenchu's secretive air and edgy, fleet-footed feel makes for an engaging, endorsed-by-Zen-masters experience. Learn to live with the graphical failings, and the atmosphere will soon have you uttering mystic wisdom like "I must become as one with the wind." Trust us. O.D.T. :There's much good stuff in here, and the levels are sizable and imaginative, but the lame execution of the project lets the whole shaky package down. Music :The worst case scenario is that Music ''will frustrate the novices, while anyone with genuine desire to create music will opt for a set-up which enables genuine sampling and melody creation. In fact, though. ''Music ''has the potential to amuse and stimulate all ability ranges and undoubtedly provides greater intellectual exercise than even the most complex of so-called interactive games. I haven't given a mention to the video creation mode, but unless you're interested in manipulating a load of garish fractal patterns in time to your music, it's best to stick with the beats. See you at the pressing plant. Test Drive 4x4 :For all of ''Test Drive's visual shortcomings, however, it is the gameplay that really requires an MOT. The undulating nature of the tracks mean that "getting air" is a prerequisite. This sounds okay in theory, it's just that no sooner have you returned from enforced aeronautics than you are bounced skyward again, while the gleeful American commentator trots out another of his limited phrases, 'Awwwwesome", it most certainly is not. Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 :Ultimately, Rogue Trip suffers the same fate as its predecessors - the gameplay is too repetitive for any real longevity, with all the fun coming from the imagination that level designers can bring to proceedings (the plane stuff, for instance, is a hoot) rather than any intrinsic challenge. Sure, the two-player mode is an improvement, although it all too often turns into a one-sided horror that's just no fun for anyone. Like a cab driver who's blathering on, Rogue Trip swiftly becomes very repetitive indeed. Formula 1 98 :In its defence, the game does boast an impressive number of options, and the admirable inclusion of a link cable mode enables you to combine two TVs and PSXs in the name of four-player gaming. But who will be inclined to bother? Particularly as the most eloquent argument against buying this update is probably sharing shelf space with it. The excellent F1 '97 is now a mere £20, and worth every penny. You know what to do. Brian Lara Cricket :Nevertheless, with enough statistics, players and teams to make John Madden himself blush, BLC's wonderfully well executed. It should sell - well, a few copies, at least - simply because fans have been so starved of cricket games they'll lap up whatever they can get. But more of us should give it a chance. In fact, even the most devoted Final Fantasy fan should find there's much to enjoy here. Zero Divide 2 :Overall, Zero Divide 2 is a limp beat-'em-up, with not nearly enough adrenaline-rushing, body-flinching, blood-curdling violence. Next to Tekken (or anything), it's a joke. NFL Xtreme :Basically, this game is caught between two stools - it's still too American footbally for beginners to the genre, and it's too arcadey if you're already a shoulderpad fanatic. Within that context, its poor attempts at humour swiftly become just plain annoying. And as for effects like realistic motion capture? No, we'll go for mad flailing idiots. Break for tactics after a tackle? No, we'll jump on the attacker, screaming at the downed unfortunate after every collision. It's guaranteed to leave both football fans and arcade players disappointed. In fact, they might both feel a touch down. Geddit? B-Movie :As you progress through the early missions, amassing piles of equipment and technology in order to build more impressive weapons, the gameplay is quietly satisfying, even if the controls can be occasionally inaccurate. It's not very long, however, before you encounter an insurmountable barrier as you find yourself forced to manipulate your ground troops while facing a barrage of hostile fire. And this is the problem with B-Movie. It becomes too hard too quickly, and offers no short cuts - there's only so long you can vainly attempt the same mission before casting the joypad to the floor in a childish fit of petulance. Despite some encouraging signs, this is one that should head straight to video. Spyro the Dragon :Spyro ''plays as well as it looks. It's full of nice touches, including mooning bad guys and a huge scarecrow boss whose jacket opens to reveal a sheep standing on stilts. The gameplay won't frustrate you, either - you'll simply keep playing Spyro until you finish it - which is how, as any dedicated game player will tell you, life should be. Actua Golf 3 :Like Sir Peter himself is wont to say, "That's simply marvellous golf". NFL Blitz :NFL Blitz is no masterpiece. The graphics are a tad too blocky, it's perhaps a touch too simple and, painful though it is to admit it, the beatific bliss that is poleaxing a huge quarterback with a dropkick will inevitably become sadly repetitive. On the other hand, knickers to that. NFL Blitz is uberviolence stamped on a shiny black disc and it deserves to be wedged in the PlayStation of every right-minded psychopath who enjoys the give of Lycra and the taste of pain. Yup, that good Test Drive 5 : Test Drive 5 shows some neat touches, but given the illustrious nature of the competition, you can't really rate its chances (Colin McRae, Gran Turismo and TOCA are all ostensibly similar, but much more absorbing). Borrow it, have a few laughs, and play the industrial metal soundtrack for someone you hate. Metal Gear Solid : A brilliant technically stunning, well thought through release that's sure to influence action adventure games for many years. But we can't recommend the Japanese original - not when the English-language US release has just gone on sale, and the UK version is expected in March '99. Wait for one of those. Mega Man Legends : Overall, though, you will find that it's the repetitiveness of the shooting sections, and the limited nature of the puzzles (often simply a case of moving between locations before the next fight), that make Legends limited fun. R-Types : Yes, every go on R-Type is exactly the same, and yes, you have to stick mindlessly to the same old tactics, and yes, when you die you're shagged because your weaponry (that fantastic ball thing we keep popping on about) has gone, But because the route to success is so bloody obvious you refuse to believe that you can't do it - and so you keep coming back time after time after time, for Just One More Go. Pool Shark : Pool Shark is all there, but it's not without its faults. For starters, why is such an incredibly non-processor intensive game not presented in hi-res, so it's all nice and crisp looking? Please, spare the technical excuses. Second, the roving, golf-style power bar is just crap - I want to be able to set my power accurately not have to rely on a random button press; and third, there are times when you want to line a shot up without having the cue in the way. Okay, so this can be achieved by flicking between cue and camera views, but it's a faff that I don't need, frankly. So nice try but no cigar. Croc: Legend of the Gobbos : To be fair, this ain't completely disastrous, just dull and frustrating. And Croc himself isn't much to write home about. Even well-adjusted five-year-olds struggle to warm to the cynically cute reptile (his shouts of "whey-hey!" are particularly nauseating), meaning you'd be better off with one of his fellow animal platformers, notably ''Gex 3D or Crash Bandicoot (also on Platinum). Grand Theft Auto : At first, this seemed like the most original, gutsy game in years. If only it had stood up to inspection. Become blase to the game's behind-the-bike-sheds humour and the top-down viewed missions are soon repetitive. The graphics are nothing special either - Commodore 64, anyone? - and together these elements conspire to drain the game of all its excitement. There's an American version of Grand Theft Auto which makes use of improved graphics and gameplay, so why couldn't we have had that instead of just a budget re-release of the inferior UK model? Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee : Nice touches abound in Oddworid, as our endearingly animated hero chants, talks and farts his way through some intricately crafted puzzles, possessing baddies and running them into mincing machines to rescue his fellow enslaved Mudokens. Admittedly, at the end of the day this is only a flick-screen 2D platformer, but the production values are lavish and you can't help but be carried along by the sheer wealth of imagination that's gone into creating Oddworld. Time Crisis : Time Crisis piles on the tension as the seconds ticks away, but also gives you the chance to alleviate it - a "duck" button letting you hide behind scenery before popping up and blazing away. You do need to play with the light gun rather than a pad to feel the full John Woo-film benefit, though, which means this an essential purchase only if you bought your G-Con along with Namco's other excellent light gunner, Point Blank. Tomb Raider III : You could, perhaps, complain that it needs a greater number of more intriguing puzzles, or moan that it's still far too keen to throw instant death your way. You could even throw in a gripe about the occasionally mismatched textures, or the times when your great new vehicle gets glitchily stuck inside a solid wall. But you're much more likely to be, quite simply, thrilled. There's life left in Lara yet. Caesar III : One thing's for sure, with this level of complexity Caesar IV will need a massive rethink. Keep going in this particular direction, and Sierra risks seriously over-taxing the one piece of PC gaming hardware that can't be upgraded - the player. Fifth Element, The : Classic games can be made from classic films, but it's attention to detail and at least a passing degree of reverence for the original material that makes them worthwhile. A game which spells Mondoshawans no less than five different ways is obviously not even trying. Populous: The Beginning : If you've never played Populous, then, this makes an excellent place to start. You'll probably be fascinated by the great central idea, and you'll get to see what all the fuss was about - this is still one of gaming's landmark titles. If you did play the original game, play it again in 3D. How much you get out of it - and this touches on a slight feeling of repetitiveness that is the only real downside to the game - will depend on how much you persevere. Links LS 1999 : A quality golf game, then, but not a perfect one. Not least because I've yet to see any conclusive proof it helps you pull. So much for the Links Effect. Star Trek: Klingon Honor Guard : Two complaints and that's about it, apart from the inevitable fact that you need a monster PC for it to look its best. On the plus side are the witty asides your Klingon character comes up with and, uh, the rest of it. A shade more polishing and it would have been perfect. As the Klingons themselves would say... Oh, sod it Get a big throat full of phlegm and make some guttural noises. That sounds about right Dune 2000 : On one level perhaps I'm being a iittle unfair. Dune 2000 never specifically claims to be a next-generation game, more the remaster of a classic. And on these terms it works. So if you fancy a trip down memory lane then give it a try - you'll be playing a piece of garning's history. If you're after an innovative game that breaks new ground, however, look elsewhere. Gaming moves so fast these days there's little room for old men. And that's decidedly what Dune 2000 is. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six : Perhaps the only real flaw is the Al of your troops, who waver between SAS-style brilliance and United States Marine Corps incompetence. The terrorists themselves are a bit like Grandma - their eyesight and hearing isn't what it should be. But while this is frustrating, it's not enough to spoil an unusual and otherwise inventive title. H.E.D.Z. : On the plus side... on the plus side. Let me see. I suppose the idea is fairly neat. And the controls are intuitive enough, with homing shots and a helpful radar showing your enemies at long range. The graphics and sound do their job too, and there are a host of nice touches - such as shot aliens making a last grab for their lost head before they're teleported out. So it's interesting, if not actually that entertaining. Me, I'm looking forward to the sequel Legz. F.A. Premier League Football Manager 99, The : Altogether, Premier League is an impressive package, but brand loyalty is high in this genre and competition is fierce. Fans of other titles may want a yet more convincing performance from EA before switching team allegiance, Dethkarz : There are no invisible walls keeping you locked to the track, which means that skidding clean off the road is frustratingly easy to do and, until you become proficient, the crash-restart routine is very alienating. But once the handling has become second-nature, DethKarz ''becomes an exhilarating bit of nonsense which should please all but the most demanding PC thrill-seekers. Ring: The Legend of the Nibelungen : ''Ring ''comes on six CD-ROMs, so there's a pretty big amount of adventuring to be had, and the game does a good job of drawing you in to the plot - especially as you'll never quite know when Alberich the dwarf king might start belting out another tune. Big up the aria! Riverworld : The game uses an intuitive point-and-click system that makes use of a 3D cards if you have one. Graphically, it's attractive but overall it's not very varied, making it a great game for fans of the lengthy series of books, but not one that's likely to pull too many non sci-fi fans in. Goodish, then, but certainly not the best in its genre Fighter Pilot : Where ''Fighter Pilot falls down is in a general lack of variety - this really is a fire-and-forget game - so it won't hold much long term appeal but with your brain locked firmly in standby mode, you're bound to have an entertaining time. Newman Haas Racing : So where does it finish? Well, Newman/Haas Racing ''is a middle-lane contender, beating most of the traffic, but occasionally ending up with a wheel on the hard shoulder. Magic & Mayhem : You may be sick to death of Arthurian legends, tales of Avalon, and old Joe from Arimathea - but if those things still appeal, M&M is a must-have. Even its combination of 30 Celtic, Greek and Medieval regions feels wonderfully Olde English, but without a trace of that puerile "pointy-hatted damsel" rubbish we've come to loathe in so many US-made fantasy games. I'd probably never admit this in the pub, in front of my football and motorbike-loving mates, but I like M&M - and I think I'm gonna buy a copy, so I can finish the damn thing. Pass the brimstone Merlin, it's going to be another late one. Emergency: Fighters for Life : All of which make ''Emergency ''a classic case of could-have-been, should-have-been. Dungeon Keeper : An uneasy mixture of point-'n'-click tactics, Theme Park''-style construction, first-person action and tight resource management means the first few hours of play may alienate, but perseverance is rewarded by DK's devilish sense of humour. F1 Racing Simulation : Arcade fun may have been sacrificed on the high altar of realism, but with cfean, super-fast visuals, and car options to make an F1 anorak dribble, this is a bargain for Damon Hill-wannabes Little Big Adventure 2 : Despite its weirdness, LBA 2 is sure to become a classic. Network Q RAC Rally : For the time, it was a highly ambitious project, and the business of following your gruelling rally route on a map, and driving it properly from behind the wheel, inspired many imitators and at least two sequels. Clearly RAC Rally has been overtaken, and its appearance on the Q label is unrealistic - you could have F1 Racing Simulation for a mere £3 more, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee : There are some pseudo-3D puzzles, such as objects that swing "in" and "out" of view, or villains who appear to be in the distance, but essentially you just flick from one puzzling screen to the next a la Manic Miner. If you want to have this sort of experience regularly, buy a console. Pro Pinball: Timeshock : Timeshock! remains the acme of the pinball sim genre. A varied, vibrantly animated set of sci-fi table obstructions might initially grab your interest but it's the authentic silver-ball physics and the anal attention to detail that is going to keep you hooked: even the mechanics of the tilt warning work according to a virtual under-table pendutum. Worth a punt if only to save you spending cash in the machine in your local Sid Meier's Gettysburg : Despite a clumsy interface, training and deploying your troops isn't a chore, and you can gleefully fight your way through the early battles of the American Civil War as either Confederates or Unionists. If accurate re-enactment bores you, Gettysburg! can also create random scenarios set in the same era. Like Civilization ''before it, the visuals are crisp and functional but not cutting-edge. Sub Culture : A range of well-conceived missions and a comic storyline - the miniature ocean-bound society is consolidating to take revenge on humanity's polluting ways - can't conceal the limited nature of the gameplay. Where ''Elite ''had hundreds of star systems. ''Sub Culture has a mere five cities. 'Nuff said Theme Hospital : Initially intriguing. Theme Hospital can become repetitive, and if you lack patience you should look for Theme Park, which is earlier, funnier and also available on budget Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business : Tomb Raider is getting on for three years old, but think of Unfinished Business as an expert challenge; a bit extra if you thought Ms Croft's first quest was over too soon. Total Annihilation : By streamlining the top-down strategy concept until all that's left is pure adrenaline, TA ''has become the undisputed Emperor of the genre. It's a better real-time combat game than ''Command & Conquer, Red Alert or StarCraft. Battles are fast, intense and heart-thumpingly well animated. Better still, hundreds of additional units and multi-player maps are already available on the Net, so this is a title to keep you busy for months. Total Insanity 2 : Some things are greater than the sum of their parts. Sadly a package of weakly executed and frustrating titles doesn't add up to a great compilation. Worms 2 isn't bad, but remains frightemngly similar to its turn-based prequel. It still provides some entertainment, which is more than can be said for the point-and-click Titanic, An Adventure Out of Time. This has nothing to do with the movie and is the worst kind of ponderous nonsense. The final offering, the first-person adventure Star Trek: Generations, is based too tightly on the Paramount film for real flexibility, and bores with its clumsy progress. Total insanity 2 is about quantity, not quality Turok 2: Seeds of Evil : This is a great, great game. Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough. Body Harvest : Body Harvest is almost the perfect action/shooting/bug-hunting game. It's got some fairly basic puzzle-solving elements, with characters to talk to and items to find, but for the most part it's all about killing. And it does it extremely well. The sheer size of the game means you won't finish it for ages, and the promise of trying out every vehicle is enough to keep you playing until you do. Just tooling about in the various different trucks is almost a game in itself. Excellent stuff. F-Zero X : F-Zero X isn't perfect, but it's not far off. And with the inclusion of a four-player option it's another great buy for N64 owners who feel the need. 1080° Snowboarding : All-in-all then, 1080° is a near-perfect release - easy to get into, hard to perfect, great looking, and packed tight with variety. It even comes with a split-screen two-player mode (actually one of the few disappointments - play with a friend and the more expert boarder is soon bound to zoom off into the far distance, never to be seen again). This is, as near as dammit, perfect snowboarding on your N64 F1 World Grand Prix : The graphics are first rate, the sound is perfect, the handing of the cars is spot on, all the real cars and drivers are present and correct, and the tracks are so accurate you could be there. Just as you'd expect. Spacestation: Silicon Valley : It's the attention to detail that makes Silicon Valley so likable. The music gets louder as you approach loudspeakers, while animals leave footprints in the snow level. Fun, then, but no showstopper. Gex 64: Enter the Gecko : Gex himself boasts almost as many frames of animation as the kids in South Park. And we're talking the wilfully flat TV series here, not the upcoming (and rather fine-looking) Quake-style 3D game. He does occasionally stick to walls, which is a bonus, but then so does a well-aimed wad of phlegm. Most disturbingly he utters a selection of muffled wisecracks throughout the game. Some of them are unfortunately intelligible, but even the best is about as amusing as a false-positive in a pregnancy test. Enter the Gecko? We'd rather not thanks Starshot: Space Circus Fever : So, despite being loaded with a scary atmosphere and a decent sense of humour, Starshot ''is too frustrating and, ironically, one-dimensional to hook you. SpikeOut : ''SpikeOut ''is great. We love it. Try it as soon as you can. Radiant Silvergun : ''Radiant Silvergun is very much as nature intended, a sense-pummelling top-down shooter with the kind of repeat play magnetism that makes you wonder why 2D shoot-'em-ups fell from grace in the first place. You can keep your fancy bloody polygons, for the time being, at least. Unreal : Unreal ''is great fun. However, there are no new ideas here -something to replace the tired and frustrating hunt-the-switch gag is needed, and ''Unreal ''doesn't provide. It's good, but it's nothing new. Cool Hand : The whole package provides about as solid a collection of card-based time wastery as you could hope for. (Of course, a simple pack of real-life cards is just as portable and far cheaper, but that's Dad talk where we corne from.) Montezuma's Return : It's not exactly the height of sophistication, but with harsh death in the offing if you drop down a few pixels too far, you're bound to keep playing to maintain your platform gaming pride... for a while at least. Just don't expect anything to happen in these in 58 colours that matches the joy of ''Super Mario Land in a few shades of grey Power Quest : It's not exactly Zelda ''then, but ''Power Quest's an engaging title, and really rather different to the Game Boy's standard platform offerings. And better still it's in colour, obviously. Reservoir Rat : All in all it's another workaday platformer, never managing to offer the sort of gameplay needed to match the Game Boy Color's new-found techno sophistication. Websites Games Domain - **** - page 150 GamerzEdge - * - page 150 CD-ROM of the Month Accesories - 2 pages (152-153) Films & Video - 2 pages (154-155) Books & Music - 2 pages (156-157) Games & Gadgets - Russell Deeks - 2 pages (158-159) Tips Spyro the Dragon guide - 6 pages (98-103) Other Tips - 7 pages (104-110) Adverts Games *Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus - 2 pages (2-3) *Music - 1 page (7) *Shogo: Mobile Armor Division - 1 page (9) Magazines *Total Football Issue 42 - 1 page (97) *Total Film Issue 23 - 1 page (112) *SFX Issue 44 - 1 page (162) Other Credits Reviews Editor :Robin Alway Staff Writers :Mark Green, Rich Pelley, Sam Richards Operations Editor :Emma Parkinson Group Art Director :Matt Williams Art Editor :Nick Moyle Designer :Alvin Weetman Contributors :James Ashton, Cam Anderson, Alex Bickham, Jason Brookes, Lindsay Bruce, Tim Cant, Jim Chandler, John Collier, Simon Cox, Jonathan Davies, Russell Deeks, Ben East, Dean Evans, Simon Garner, Mike Goldsmith, Daniel Griffiths, Mark Griffiths, Will Groves, Ian Harris, Neil Jackson, Chris James, Steve Jarratt, Simon Kirrane, Martin Kitts, Clare Lydon, Stephen Pierce, Nadine Pittam, James Price, Julian Rignall, Jon Smith, Travis, Camilla Way, Glen Weston, Jason Weston External Links Old Games Mags has a scan of this issue. Issue Index Category:Contains Playstation Reviews Category:Contains PC Reviews Category:Contains N64 Reviews Category:Contains Arcade Reviews Category:Contains Apple Mac Reviews Category:Contains Saturn Reviews Category:Contains Game Boy Reviews